Urban Tourism Competitiveness: Networks and the Regional Asset Base

Abstract

Firms are acknowledged to be important actors involved in the deployment of resources available to a tourism destination. In turn, successful tourism firms can contribute to building the competitive advantage of tourism destinations through affecting a destination's tourism product or service. The present study analyses business performance in urban tourism using networks and entrepreneurial perceptions over a city's asset base as a framework of competitive performance. Business performance is measured in terms of productive efficiency—that is, technical and scale efficiency. Results indicate that networks and entrepreneurial perceptions of a city's asset base constitute important determinants of the successful operation of tourism businesses.